Category Archives: Community

The quote from Kahlil Gibran is a wonderful reminder that daily life when attended to and tended to is our temple and religion. Do we choose to make daily life sacred? That is a question with no answer, because one is always being negotiated in living our lives in the moment.

The word religion shares the root with ligaments and suggests religion not as a divisive institution, but a way of living that binds us together in our humanness, humanity, and humaneness. We are more alike than we are different although we lose sight of that.

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an ordinary day

Posted on October 9, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

an ordinary day.

Bert offers insight into the paradox we live with “the experiencer is the experience(d). While we are experiencing life, others, and the world, we are being experienced by life, others, and the world. We leave our imprint as we are imprinted in these mutual and reciprocal experiences.

Is it an ordinary day? More likely it is an extra-ordinary day. The extra is when we are able to experience each moment as it is, the present and transient now. Each experience is fluid and never returns fully even in retrospect. It becomes part of fictional person we are. Fictional and myth are parts of the reality we live, another paradox. Who we are is a character continuously being written and edited in the living and experiencing we encounter.

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Capturing The Moment — Papilio multicaudata Butterfly

Posted on October 8, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Capturing The Moment — Papilio multicaudata Butterfly.

The image and the short verse in the link are spectacular. Martin Buber wrote complex prose which was poetic. His central point in his seminal work I and Thou was we become who we are in relationship with ourselves, others, and the world. He has a beautiful section about our relationship with trees. In our relationships, we become unique. We are not duplicates of anyone else.

We are who we are because of our relationships, the impact they have on us, and the sense we make of them. Sometimes, more often than not I imagine, the relationships go unnoticed and are taken-for-granted just as our uniqueness is. We become whats in the world rather than a particular who in the world. We might even fall victim to seeing ourselves as whats, as products, rather than that unique person who is only expressed in our particular whoness.

In a world driven by standardization and conformity to standards, it is difficult to find one’s voice and express one’s self through that voice.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, creativity, eloquent questions, Martin Buber, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Oneness of Being

Posted on October 4, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Oneness of Being.

The article linked contains a quote from Khalil Gibran about the importance of other people in our lives. Emmanuel Levinas capitalized Other in his writing emphasizing the point.

We are incomplete without others in our lives. However, we do not always see their importance until they are out of our lives. The world and others complete who we are. We are always in relationship with someone and something.

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Simpler Times

Posted on October 3, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Simpler Times.

The Saturday Evening Post cover speaks speaks about simpler times. There is no better time than this moment. The times were simpler and I think the key to the link is the quote under the image. Our inner child is our muse.

When we live in the moment with curiosity and reverence, our inner child sees the world with wonder and awe. The other night we laughed as our grandson played with the little boy in the mirror for 5 minutes. They had a wonderful time and so did we. It reminded the world is always ready to be explored anew when we adopt the beginner’s mind.

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Be a Player, not a Victim

Posted on October 1, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Be a Player, not a Victim.

We use the words responsibility and accountability interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing. Certainly, the two words are connected in ways, but providing a response and being responsible are internal emerging from the person. Acc0untability is external. Someone else makes a judgement about our words and actions.

Accountability also connects as we give an account of our self. We describe who we are in giving this account. We take responsibility for who we are, what we say, and what we do. We take responsibility for how we are living in both telling and living our personal story.

Accountability suggests someone is more expert than we are in living our lives. It also suggests that there is a certainty about this expertise.

Machado wrote “Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer there is not road, the road is made by walking.” We accept responsibility for walking the road one step at a time in the company of others.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged Antonio Machado, community, conversational journey, creativity, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Clever or Wise?

Posted on September 29, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Clever or Wise?.

I spent two days on a break of sorts. I intended to post something late Saturday afternoon, but spent the day and good portion of the evening being a minion to our 5 month old grandson.

He is getting to the age where he can play games i.e. peek-a-boo and he recalls that he has played the game with you. When I walked into the house on Sunday, he smiled and wanted to play.

Small things and children help us grow and become wise. We want to change our self because it is the best way to change the world we come in contact with. We blend the passion for life with compassion, because without the integration we are incomplete.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rumi, sabbath, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

A Shining Lamp

Posted on September 26, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

A Shining Lamp.

When we live in right ways, we are shining lamps for the world and others in the world. Being compassionate allows us to reach past our ignorance and support those in need, sentient and non-sentient, in the moment.

This theme of being a shining lamp crosses cultural and religious boundaries. Jesus referred to lighting a lamp and not hiding it. When we live a life revealing who we are touching the world in compassionate ways, we bring others into the light. Being aware and present in the world allows us to feel world’s needs. We become one in those needs sharing with all phenomena in new ways. Our ignorance falls away pushing past human imposed boundaries between each other.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments and tagged Bible, community, creativity, Jesus, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Bhagavad Gita. Bookmark the permalink.

Live in Wonder

Posted on September 24, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Live in Wonder.

The world is a place of wonder. It is poetry in its most indefinable ways and that is why we need pauses between the words. It is in those pauses that the wonder soaks in and we can live in wonder. If the world had no spaces and only noise, we would be overwhelmed. The spaces are an inviting into the most precious relationships we can possibly have with the world, those we share the world, and all matter that matters.

When we pause and listen in the stillness and quiet, we are present to all that is holy and real. The world is made whole in those moments.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, conversational journey, Educational Leadership, eloquent questions, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

¡Nunca más!

Posted on September 23, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

¡Nunca más!.

The link is to a short poem in English and Spanish. If our children do not learn, we may not teach them. The role of parents is teaching their children.

It is not that what we teach will be accepted. Children, as they become more independent, become more able to set their path.

Teaching is inviting others into learning. It is not about guaranteeing learning. The world changes and the result is what is needed to live in the world and be in relationships is changing. Perhaps the best thing we can teach our children is to be thankful for what they have and live in the moment recognizing what they have in each moment.